The Gilpin County Board of County Commissioners approved Stage One fire restrictions for the County during a regular virtual meeting at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, November 23, 2021. The Board also approved a proposal to change Transfer Station guidelines, County employee job titles and pay grades, a request to hire a sports official, and a proposal to assist Adams County with child welfare assessments.

The Board also heard a report on proposed annexation by the City of Black Hawk and celebrated the career of Public Health Coordinator Bonnie Albrecht.

To begin the meeting, the Board celebrated Public Health Coordinator Bonnie Albrecht’s service to Gilpin County. Chair Isenhart said the first five years were business as usual for her, but the wonderful things she has done the past two years have been different as she dealt with COVID-19, and she has taken a lot of slack from unhappy people.

Albrecht said she loved working up here and will miss the community. “It’s been my honor, and it’s been a fun seven years.”

County Attorney Benning said she is a “compassionate rock” and has helped the county. Commissioner Hollingsworth said she keeps her cool and knows what she is talking about.

Commission Clerk Sharon Cate displayed a plaque in her honor, and she received a round of applause.

County Attorney Brad Benning announced that Stage One fire restrictions went into effect at 8 a.m. on Friday, November 19, 2021, and he asked that the Board formalize that. It will be posted on the County website, which gives the necessary details.

“Fire is our biggest enemy other than COVID, and you can be responsible for starting a fire and the costs,” Benning said. The Board approved imposing Stage One fire restrictions.

Public Works Director John Combs introduced a proposal to limit large and heavy loads brought into the Gilpin County Transfer Station, such as concrete blocks, asphalt, and tree stumps. During the last several years, the volume of users has increased dramatically around the holidays.

With heavy debris damaging cans, and tree stumps that don’t break down, heavy loads make the cans unstable to take them over Gap Road to the Jefferson County landfill. Combs would like to see the County concentrate on citizens with trash while getting out of accepting heavy items.

Combs also said that too many citizens are waiting until the last two weeks of the year to use their free trash day tokens, which is tough around the holidays.

Last year, they had a line down to the car wash with people trying to use their tokens by the end of the year. Combs asked that free trash day tokens must be used on or before the Sunday before Christmas. They would like to put the date in a flyer and post it on the website.

Commission Chair Linda Isenhart said she was in favor of limiting heavy loads for the safety of County drivers. The Board approved the public works policy update with the transfer station limitations on concrete, asphalt, and stumps. They also approved the public works date change for use of free tokens to the Sunday before the Christmas holiday, beginning in 2022.

Interim Human Resources Director Susie Allen introduced the revised job titles and pay grades for County employees. The Board had approved the pay plan at the last meeting.

Graves Consulting had gone over job descriptions and matched them with competitors along the front range, because Gilpin does compete with other counties in the area. Graves ensured they had sample sizes for the jobs.

Allen said, “This has taken many months and a lot of people were involved.” The Board approved a motion for the new job titles and pay grades to become effective January 1, 2022.

Parks and Recreation Director Gabrielle Chisolm said she was looking to hire a sports official.The position has been in the budget the whole year and is budgeted in 2022. She would like to hire back John Leventhal. The Board approved.

Human Services Director Laura Solomon presented a proposal to assist Adams County with the child welfare assessment intake process. She said they can negotiate the number of cases they take, and she is asking for approval.

According to the Resolution, Gilpin County will develop and maintain a list of its employees willing to perform services. Adams County will coordinate with Gilpin County to provide necessary documentation and information.

Adams County will contact employees listed by Gilpin County when all available intake caseworkers have been assigned two assessments in one working day, or when all available intake caseworkers will exceed five new assessments in one week. Adams County will compensate Gilpin County directly for any work performed by Gilpin County employees, and work performed by Gilpin County employees outside of regular business hours will not be considered overtime work.

County Attorning Benning said he set this up as an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA). Adams County offered to pay Gilpin County based on the number of children per report for safety, and they will support a supervisor. The contract with Gilpin County will be to take on the front-end assignments and perform investigations.

If the court will need to be involved, Adams County will take back the reports. Benning said the County will not be making money, but they are not losing money either.

Solomon said that Adams County said they were “hemorrhaging” right now. Benning said that the IGA may benefit us when we need help in the future.

Commissioner Web Sill said he is in favor of doing this. It provides an opportunity to offer help and gives us future flexibility. Solomon said she would like to move this forward and work with Adams County.

It will take some work to get this going, and it might be January 1 before it is ready, so she plans to have it figured out by the December 7 Commission meeting. The Commissioners approved keeping this moving but wanted to see the IGA.

Sill said “It is the holiday season. Let’s get our employees on the battlefield as soon as possible.”

Benning discussed a recent annexation by the City of Black Hawk for the Miner’s Mesa and the Proximo development. It will become part of the City of Black Hawk.

An annexation impact report to Black Hawk is scheduled for a public hearing on December 8, 2021, at 3 p.m., in the Black Hawk Council Chambers. Proximo Distillers, LCC, has submitted a petition on September 21, 2021, to annex property consisting of 75 acres into the City of Black Hawk. Now called Gregory Hill, it was previously referred to as Miner’s Mesa.

The 11 annexation petitions are known as Lake Gulch Whiskey Resort Annexations 8 through 18. The proposal to be annexed is bounded to the south and west by the Central City Parkway and to the north by Miner’s Mesa Road and the existing Black Hawk city limits. Lake Gulch Road extends through the middle of the area.

Benning said he has received an impact report and has talked with Black Hawk and Proximo. He will bring further information to the Commission at the meeting on December 7.

The next meeting of the Gilpin County Commission will be on December 7 at 9 a.m.